What if school lasted all life long?

Do you know the lyrics of the old song that says, “School’s out for summer, school’s out forever”? But what if, in fact, school lasted all life long? My wife Muriel and I have a friend who knows a lady with an immense library full of edifying Christian books. Most of these books are about marriage and parenting. When our friend asked this lady where she found the time to read all these books, this was her answer:

“I finished my studies, I have a degree, work…yet my first calling on Earth is my relationship with my husband and children. If I studied for 5 years to learn my career, why shouldn’t I also educate myself concerning married life, education, or family life? Since it’s important to me, I find time to read these books to learn what the Bible wants to teach me about these subjects.”

There are people who spend 20 years of their lives exploring, often through difficult experiences, all kinds of subjects: forgiveness, finances, health, church life, leadership, relationships, evangelism…These people have spent years experiencing then writing divine wisdom on these subjects, compiled into videos, podcasts (audio teachings), or Christian books.

Why deprive yourself of all this wisdom? I myself am a book lover and appreciate learning from people whose lives have been powerfully touched by God. It blesses me and causes me to grow, even if, I must admit, nothing beats the Bible. ?

I’ll leave you with this passage from the letter to the Ephesians: “Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” (the Bible, Ephesians 4:11-13, NLT)

In His grace, God foresaw that we’d be one great big family and that we could build each other up through our specific talents. You’re part of this great family too. My prayer is that you too would be able to find your talent and use it to edify the body of Christ.